Automated planning will help TDC NET's service cars reduce the number of kilometers driven by 25 percent. The solution will later be extended to others with a lot of company driving.
Every year, approximately 4 million tonnes of CO2 are emitted on Danish roads according to the Danish Climate Partnership for Land Transport. This is a large part of the total CO2 emissions in Denmark.
With that in mind, DTU Management and DTU Compute, together with the software company QAMPO and TDC NET, and with support from Innovation Fund Denmark, have now launched the ambitious four-year project GREENFORCE. Through the project, the partners will develop solutions that can significantly reduce the total driven in TDC NET. At the same time, the solutions must be disseminated to other relevant companies that want to limit their driving.
TDC NET, which connects Denmark via mobile networks and landlines, has 850 technician cars that drive 80,000 kilometers daily, equivalent to two full times around the Earth. The goal is to reduce it by 25 percent by 2025, among other things, using far more advanced automated transportation planning.
Software reduces mileage
International studies suggest that total transportation costs can be reduced by 5 to 20 percent by going from manual to automated transportation planning. A potential that can be translated into reductions in CO2 emissions. The GREENFORCE project will realize this potential in practice.
Specifically, the parties will develop new software that, via artificial intelligence combined with advanced algorithms, computing power, and service design, analyzes data from TDC NET and the technician cars. Using the data as a starting point, it will be possible to optimize the technicians' daily route planning in real-time, enable the technicians to solve more customer problems from a distance and predict when the network needs to be maintained.
Ali Khatam, co-founder of data and software company QAMPO says:
"QAMPO is a leader in the design and development of intelligent planning solutions, including health, passenger transport and airports. Based on our know-how and with the strong competencies that are part of the project, we look into a unique opportunity to design and develop a groundbreaking product to utilize existing resources more efficiently and create transparency in an otherwise unmanageable logistical issue - for the benefit of our customers, society and the climate. With GREENFORCE, QAMPO will look into a steadily growing Field Service Management market with a global turnover of more than DKK 100 billion per year."
Will develop a new research area
DTU focuses on delivering research that not only contributes to the academic world but also translates into concrete solutions for companies and benefits society. At the same time, sustainability plays an important role at DTU.
In the GREENFORCE project, the two departments expect a lot from the project, which provides an opportunity to try new things, says Professor at DTU Management David Pisinger:
"DTU Compute and DTU Management are experts in artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, and optimization. In the GREENFORCE project, we will combine the three areas in an innovative way that has not been seen before, and develop a research area with huge potential. This is equivalent to connecting three motors together. If we can get them to collaborate, the research will be flying."
CO2 neutrality in 2028
In recent years, TDC NET has worked with data and automation to optimize the planning of a total of 3,500 daily tasks and 1,200 daily customer visits. This work must be further intensified through the project, which plays an important role in TDC NET's ambition to become climate neutral in 2028, measured by the CO2 emissions, hereunder the car fleet.
"As a provider of digital infrastructure with one of Denmark's largest car fleets, we have a shared responsibility for continuously thinking new and developing solutions that can improve our technicians' everyday lives, the customer experience we deliver, and the imprint we make on the world around us. All the elements the project can contribute to, and we, therefore, look forward to getting started with the development and testing the new solutions in our daily work," says Christian Duer, Executive Vice President, responsible for TDC NET's technicians and fiber rollout.
About GREENFORCE
- In a four-year Grand Solution project, QAMPO, DTU Management, DTU Compute, and TDC NET will develop new solutions and software that can improve the intelligent management of car fleets
- The total budget is DKK 30 million, of which the Innovation Fund Denmark contributes DKK 15 million
- GREENFORCE gives DTU the opportunity to employ two PhDs and 3 postdocs
- Already today, TDC NET collects and uses a number of data about e.g. duration of different types of service tasks, GPS data from cars, historical data, etc. The data must now be used even more and even smarter by developing new solutions through the project
- Using artificial intelligence and decision science technology, data must be processed and analyzed, after which the software solution helps to plan the technicians' tasks to carry out the most efficient and with the best possible customer experience.
- By streamlining the automated transport planning and by enabling the technicians to solve more customer problems from a distance, the project expects to be able to limit the number of kilometers driven at TDC NET by 25%. This corresponds to TDC NET's CO2 emissions in 2025 is reduced by 3000 tonnes compared to 2020
- As part of the project, the developed software is also expected to be disseminated to other relevant companies and institutions with large car fleets.
